Fort Dodge, Ia. — In Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson’s comments this week after shifting his support from Michele Bachmann to Ron Paul, he has said repeatedly that Senate rules preclude him from accepting payment from either campaign.

Bachmann has accused Sorenson of ditching her campaign in order to take a bigger payday with Paul. Sorenson has rejected that outright, and said he couldn’t accept a payment under the Senate rules.

But he may be misreading those rules.

Rule Six of the Senate Code of Ethics states that senators “shall not accept employment, either directly or indirectly, from a political action committee or from an organization exempt from taxation under section 501(c)(4), 501(c)(6), or 527 of the Internal Revenue Code that engages in activities related to the nomination, election, or defeat of a candidate for public office.”

But it also includes this carve-out:

“For the purpose of this rule, a political action committee means a committee, but not a candidate’s committee, which accepts contributions, makes expenditures, or incurs indebtedness in the aggregate of more than seven hundred fifty dollars in any one calendar year to expressly advocate the nomination, election, or defeat of a candidate for public office…”

(Emphasis added).

That would seem to OK paid political work done on behalf of a candidate committee, like those running Bachmann and Paul’s presidential operations ahead of the Iowa caucuses.

Calls and an e-mail to Iowa Secretary of the Senate Michael E. Marshall seeking clarification or a more definitive interpretation were not immediately returned.

As reported by the Register this morning, there are records of payments totaling $1,200 to “Kent Sorenson” and “Kent Sorenson Jr.” in Bachmann’s third-quarter campaign reports, although Sorenson has said they were made to his son for work done ahead of the Iowa Straw Poll in August.